The present invention relates to the field of information management, and more specifically, to providing an information resource where the content is organized using a social graph.
In business, there is an adage: “the right ten minutes in front of the right person is worth more than a year at your desk.” This is because it is people that make things happen, and connecting with the right person can give you the resources, access or credibility you may need to advance your business.
So, often the questions become who is the right person, how do I get in front of them, and how do I “emotionally connect” with them in the first few minutes so that they take a liking to me, listen to the rest of my presentation, and want to help me.
Most business people are constantly trying to advance their career by creating the “right” relationships. It is a complicated task figuring out who those people are, meeting them, and building a relationship. Each of these is a specific task.
Most executives try to “do their homework” in this regard. For instance: (1) I am going to a conference: who do I want to meet there and what should I say if I meet them? (2) I am going to a meeting: I know who the other people are going to be in attendance, but what can I know about them to make my meeting more successful? (3) I want to meet someone: who do I know who can introduce me? (4) I want to get someone as a client: how do I sound knowledgeable about their particular lives and issues to demonstrate sensitivity to their concerns? There are many more such use cases.
Some social networks include Facebook™ and LinkedIn™. Trademarks indicated in this patent application are the property of their respective owners. If the world is a pyramid of people, with the “most important” being at the top, Facebook is the masses at the bottom and Linkedln is the middle-level managers in the middle. However, there is no social network that caters to the world's most “influential people,” in large part because these people generally keep a low profile, do not promote themselves, and generally do not want the general public contacting through electronic means.
On-line services, libraries, and information resources are available to assist users to research people (often important and influential) that they want to make a connection to. The information is, however, typically presented in a flat format. Even if hyperlinked, the information is still not presented in a way to easily show connections between a targeted individual and other people, and how the targeted individual might be connected to the user.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an information resource where information is also organized according to a social graph or social network, which shows the connections between people, especially influential people.